The Jim Boeheim Olympic report: Tuneup vs. Brazil up next for USA basketball

Gary A. Vasquez / US Presswire The USA coaching staff watches game action Thursday night at the Thomas and Mack Center. Left to right are assistant Nate McMillan, assistant Mike DâAntoni, head coach Mike Krzyzewski and assistant Jim Boeheim.

Syracuse University’s Jim Boeheim is serving once again as an assistant coach on the staff of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. He will provide periodic reports through the Americans’ presumptive gold-medal game in London on Aug. 12 in The Post-Standard.

Washington, D.C. — There are so many reasons for each of us to be excited about being a part of this Olympic basketball team, and this weekend is just another example.

After we defeated the Dominican Republic 113-59 in our first exhibition game out there in Las Vegas on Thursday night, we got up the following morning and flew here to prepare for Monday’s exhibition in the Verizon Center against Brazil.

That’s going to be a good test, for sure. Because Brazil is going to be one of the top five or six teams in the Olympics, it’ll be a tougher game for us than the D.R. was. But this weekend will be about so much more than just basketball.

On Friday night, our entire coaching staff was set to go out to dinner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Today, we’re holding a practice in front of 4,000 military people. And on Sunday, we’re taking the team to Arlington Cemetery. So, it’s going to be a busy weekend. And it’s going to very special for all of us. Very memorable.

On the basketball side, I believe we got off to a good start in Las Vegas.

First of all, I must tell you that this is a great group. They like each other a lot, and they really get along well. And that’s key. The chemistry couldn’t be better. And, believe, me, these guys are working their tails off.

Against the Dominican Republic, our defensive pressure was good, which is what we’re going to need. And Kevin Durant, who ended up with 24 points and 10 rebounds, started off the game with four straight 3’s. I mean, he’s a 6-foot-11 guy shooting 3’s. When you have a weapon like that ... well, I’d say that’s a great weapon to have, wouldn’t you?

Meanwhile, Andre Iguodala (18 points) shot the ball well, which he hasn’t done for us in the past. Carmelo (13 points) played well. And we got our point guards, Chris Paul and Deron Williams, back. Chris had that injury to his right thumb and Deron couldn’t play until he signed his contract with Brooklyn. So, it was good to finally see them out there.

It was also good to see John Calipari over there coaching the Dominican Republic. He’s doing a good job with that bunch. And, yeah, I did notice that John had Karl Towns Jr., the 16-year-old kid (who’ll be a 6-11 sophomore at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, N.J., in the fall), on his team. That could have been a little bit of a recruiting move. I mean, do you think?

Anyway, we had a nice talk before the game. John said, “Now don’t beat us by too much because I’ll be back at Kentucky next season.” And I told him, “We won’t be playing you until the NCAA Tournament, so we won’t worry about you until then.”

We won’t worry about this, either: All that talk comparing the 1992 Dream Team with this 2012 club. It’s a fun discussion, sure, but it’s unprovable. And, no, I don’t want to say who’d win. I’m not getting into that.

But I will say that when you think about the Dream Team, you have to remember that John Stockton was hurt, and that Patrick Ewing and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were at the ends of their careers. And that they had a college player, Christian Laettner. When you look at our guys, though, you see that almost all of them are in the primes of their careers.

The Dream Team was an unbelievable team. There is only one Dream Team. Everybody knows that. If all of those players were in their primes, that team would probably be better than this one. But those guys weren’t in their primes when they played as the Dream Team. All I know is that we’ve got a heckuva team here in 2012 and all we can do is try to win a gold medal in London.